May 16, 2009 9:58 AM
- Text
Pakistan Bomb Hits Handicapped Kids' Bus
(CBS/AP)
A car bomb destroyed an Internet cafe and tore through a bus carrying handicapped children in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 11 people and wounding at least 30, police said.
Pakistan's interior ministry on Saturday ordered a state of high alert across the capitals of the country's four provinces after the attack in Peshawar, capital of the troubled northwest frontier province (NWFP).
Elsewhere in the troubled region, an apparent U.S. missile strike destroyed a Taliban training camp, killing 25 militants, while Pakistani troops killed dozens of Taliban in their bid to re-conquer the Swat Valley, officials said.
Violence is engulfing Pakistani territory along the Afghan border as American and allied forces crank up the pressure on al Qaeda and Taliban militants entrenched in the forbidding and barely governed mountains and valleys.
The car bomb devastated a street in the main northwestern city of Peshawar on Saturday afternoon as it was busy with shoppers and traffic.
Television images showed several vehicles burning fiercely, and a stricken white-and-green bus that had been dropping handicapped children at their homes around the city.
The eight students still on board were injured, one seriously, medics and police said. Four other children and seven adults were killed, and dozens more were injured, they said.
Safwat Ghayur, a senior police official, said one of a string of shops wrecked by the blast was an Internet cafe - a favorite target for violent Islamist extremists in Pakistan who consider the Web a source of moral corruption.
Ghayur said the cafe had received several threats and even been attacked recently by gunmen. He said police were holding suspects in the shooting, but refused to elaborate.
It was unclear if any of the victims had been in the cafe or if it was the intended target. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but an intelligence official in Islamabad told CBS News' Farhan Bokhari immediate investigations were probing links to the militant Taliban movement in the Waziristan region along the border with Afghanistan.
Led by notorious warlord Baitullah Mehsud, the movement has been previously investigated for links to past attacks, including last September's attack on Islamabad's Mariott hotel.
The intelligence official who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity said the attack appeared to be in retaliation for the ongoing operation by the Pakistani military in the northern Swat valley where more than 800 Taliban militants are believed to have been killed in the past eight days.
"Unless proven otherwise, the assumption at the moment is that this attack is in retaliation for the killings in Swat," said the official.
Separately, a senior interior ministry official confirmed that following the attack a high alert was ordered for Lahore, capital of the populous Punjab province; Karachi, capital of the Sindh province; and Quetta, capital of the south western Baluchistan province.
"The security assessment right now sees the worst case scenario as that of attacks on the capitals of the three other provinces after Peshawar," said the official, who also spoke with CBS News on condition of anonymity.
Analysts warned that the offensive aimed at seizing control of the Swat valley could be a battlefield victory that easily turns into a humanitarian challenge, as huge numbers or refugees have fled the fighting.
"This is not like a battle against your external enemy where you are fighting on somebody else's turf," warned Lieutenant General (retired) Hamid Nawaz Khan, a respected former military commander, speaking to CBS News. "This is a battle where your people will certainly suffer in large numbers".
In recent days, Pakistani government officials have warned of the danger facing at least 1.5 million people leaving their homes in the Swat valley area where the battle is being fought between the military and the Taliban, and migrating to other parts of Pakistan.
Security officials fear Taliban militants could leave the area in the guise of refugees to escape arrest, and launch attacks in other parts of the country.
The interior ministry official who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity, acknowledged there could be no "fool-proof and precise system to closely screen" the large numbers of people traveling from Swat to other parts of Pakistan.
Missile Strike In Waziristan
Militants have threatened more attacks in Pakistan in retaliation for dozens of American missile attacks on their strongholds in Pakistan's tribal areas.
In the latest strike, Pakistani officials said several missiles hit a religious school and a nearby vehicle on Saturday morning in Mir Ali, a town in the North Waziristan tribal region.
Two intelligence officials, citing reports from agents in the field, said at least 25 people were killed, including two foreign militants, and dozens more were wounded.
The identity of the victims was not immediately clear, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly to the media.
However, they said the school was being used as a training camp by Gul Bahadur, a prominent Taliban commander believed to be involved in fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's interior ministry on Saturday ordered a state of high alert across the capitals of the country's four provinces after the attack in Peshawar, capital of the troubled northwest frontier province (NWFP).
Elsewhere in the troubled region, an apparent U.S. missile strike destroyed a Taliban training camp, killing 25 militants, while Pakistani troops killed dozens of Taliban in their bid to re-conquer the Swat Valley, officials said.
Violence is engulfing Pakistani territory along the Afghan border as American and allied forces crank up the pressure on al Qaeda and Taliban militants entrenched in the forbidding and barely governed mountains and valleys.
The car bomb devastated a street in the main northwestern city of Peshawar on Saturday afternoon as it was busy with shoppers and traffic.
Television images showed several vehicles burning fiercely, and a stricken white-and-green bus that had been dropping handicapped children at their homes around the city.
The eight students still on board were injured, one seriously, medics and police said. Four other children and seven adults were killed, and dozens more were injured, they said.
Safwat Ghayur, a senior police official, said one of a string of shops wrecked by the blast was an Internet cafe - a favorite target for violent Islamist extremists in Pakistan who consider the Web a source of moral corruption.
Ghayur said the cafe had received several threats and even been attacked recently by gunmen. He said police were holding suspects in the shooting, but refused to elaborate.
It was unclear if any of the victims had been in the cafe or if it was the intended target. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but an intelligence official in Islamabad told CBS News' Farhan Bokhari immediate investigations were probing links to the militant Taliban movement in the Waziristan region along the border with Afghanistan.
Led by notorious warlord Baitullah Mehsud, the movement has been previously investigated for links to past attacks, including last September's attack on Islamabad's Mariott hotel.
The intelligence official who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity said the attack appeared to be in retaliation for the ongoing operation by the Pakistani military in the northern Swat valley where more than 800 Taliban militants are believed to have been killed in the past eight days.
"Unless proven otherwise, the assumption at the moment is that this attack is in retaliation for the killings in Swat," said the official.
Separately, a senior interior ministry official confirmed that following the attack a high alert was ordered for Lahore, capital of the populous Punjab province; Karachi, capital of the Sindh province; and Quetta, capital of the south western Baluchistan province.
"The security assessment right now sees the worst case scenario as that of attacks on the capitals of the three other provinces after Peshawar," said the official, who also spoke with CBS News on condition of anonymity.
Analysts warned that the offensive aimed at seizing control of the Swat valley could be a battlefield victory that easily turns into a humanitarian challenge, as huge numbers or refugees have fled the fighting.
"This is not like a battle against your external enemy where you are fighting on somebody else's turf," warned Lieutenant General (retired) Hamid Nawaz Khan, a respected former military commander, speaking to CBS News. "This is a battle where your people will certainly suffer in large numbers".
In recent days, Pakistani government officials have warned of the danger facing at least 1.5 million people leaving their homes in the Swat valley area where the battle is being fought between the military and the Taliban, and migrating to other parts of Pakistan.
Security officials fear Taliban militants could leave the area in the guise of refugees to escape arrest, and launch attacks in other parts of the country.
The interior ministry official who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity, acknowledged there could be no "fool-proof and precise system to closely screen" the large numbers of people traveling from Swat to other parts of Pakistan.
Missile Strike In Waziristan
Militants have threatened more attacks in Pakistan in retaliation for dozens of American missile attacks on their strongholds in Pakistan's tribal areas.
In the latest strike, Pakistani officials said several missiles hit a religious school and a nearby vehicle on Saturday morning in Mir Ali, a town in the North Waziristan tribal region.
Two intelligence officials, citing reports from agents in the field, said at least 25 people were killed, including two foreign militants, and dozens more were wounded.
The identity of the victims was not immediately clear, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly to the media.
However, they said the school was being used as a training camp by Gul Bahadur, a prominent Taliban commander believed to be involved in fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
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